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Kawhi Leonard investigation expands as NBA examines two more financial arrangements

NY Post
4 weeks 1 day ago
The NBA’s investigation into Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers reportedly reaches beyond the controversial Aspiration sponsorship deal that first triggered scrutiny nearly a year ago, with the uncertainty now putting Leonard’s planned trade to the Toronto Raptors on ice. According to new reporting from The Athletic, the outside law firm conducting the inquiry...
Ryan Anderson

Jack Smith's Team Spied On 44 Lawmakers' Texts, Built A Case On Them, And Misled Congress: Grassley

Zero Rss
4 weeks 1 day ago
Jack Smith's Team Spied On 44 Lawmakers' Texts, Built A Case On Them, And Misled Congress: Grassley

Former special counsel Jack Smith's investigators blew past the Justice Department's own privilege safeguards to directly access text messages between Trump White House officials and 44 members of Congress - then had the FBI match the phone numbers to lawmakers' names, according to DOJ records released Tuesday.

Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis told Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) in a letter accompanying the records that Smith's team "bypassed the Filter Team and directly accessed these text messages." The FBI then worked out which senators and House members had sent or received them, Davis wrote.

The filter unit existed for one purpose: to screen messages pulled from the National Archives for privileged material before line investigators ever laid eyes on them.

"All communication to/from the Filter Team must go through the Coordinator," one internal protocol document states - adding that nothing was to reach the investigative team without a filter attorney's sign-off.

The messages, sent between October 2020 and Jan. 20, 2021, ran between a bipartisan roster of lawmakers and Trump White House figures including chief of staff Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, Ivanka Trump, Stephen Miller, Peter Navarro, now-CIA Director John Ratcliffe and now-FBI Director Kash Patel, the records show.

I received records frm DOJ confirming Jack Smith's investigative team reviewed the contents of text msgs sent by 44 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS Im 1 of the 44

Im alerting my colleagues who were impacted and will release the records w Sen Johnson so American ppl can see the evidence

— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 14, 2026

Among the 44 lawmakers: Grassley himself, Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine), Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.); House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.); Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.); Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), ranking member of the Armed Services Committee; then-Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), now mayor of Los Angeles; and then-Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), now head of the EPA.

An internal DOJ email dated Aug. 21, 2023, shows Smith's team discussing "54 excel files with text messages from White House phones" being loaded into a shared drive - material gathered under the codenames "Project Coconut," the election-interference probe, and "Project Cranberry," the Mar-a-Lago documents case.

"Jack Smith's criminal investigation of President Trump was a runaway train that had no brakes," Grassley said Tuesday, charging that investigators reviewed messages from dozens of lawmakers "outside the scope of the government's investigation" - and that Smith's team "ran roughshod over the Constitution even after repeated warnings."

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) called the disclosure "yet another grotesque example" of the Biden-era Justice Department's weaponization, saying no one should be shocked by Smith's "recklessness and blatant abuse of power."

'Just toll records'

The records land squarely on testimony Smith gave under oath seven months ago.

At his Dec. 17 deposition before the House Judiciary Committee, Smith repeatedly assured lawmakers that his office's reach into Congress stopped at "toll records" - bare logs of who called whom, and when.

"Did you seek a search warrant for the content of any text messages from Members?" a committee lawyer asked.

"No, I don't recall that," Smith answered.

"It was just toll records?"

"Correct."

Asked separately whether the toll records his office obtained from members of Congress included "the content of text messages," Smith answered flatly: "No."

Jack Smith explicitly denied under oath during his House Judiciary deposition last December that he reviewed text messages from members of Congress:

Q: "Did the records that you requested from the Member of Congress include the content of text messages?"

Smith: "No." https://t.co/XLb9lyFXSP pic.twitter.com/jBDSAYYQzD

— Greg Price (@greg_price11) July 14, 2026

Strictly speaking, those questions concerned records sought directly from lawmakers and their phone carriers - not the White House data Smith's office already held. But nowhere in the 255-page deposition did Smith volunteer that his investigators possessed - and, per the Davis letter, had directly accessed - the actual contents of members' messages, harvested from the other side of the conversation. The committee, unaware of the National Archives trove, never asked.

A review of the transcript also found Smith sharpened his sworn answers after the fact. In an errata sheet correcting the record, Smith revised his response on whether any other lawmaker's phone had been seized from "I don't know" to a definitive "I don't -- no." Another correction strikes the word "text" from his reference to "text records" that could prove certain Jan. 6 calls happened - leaving just "records."

Either way, the 'perjury' word is being tossed around now...

Looks like perjury https://t.co/WzUTnqGati

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) July 14, 2026

Roughly 30 pages of the transcript released by the committee - including the page carrying Smith's "just toll records" exchange - were inserted as images rather than searchable text, meaning keyword searches of the document skip past them. The committee did not respond to questions about the formatting.

Months of warnings

Tuesday's release caps a months-long drip of Arctic Frost disclosures: 197 subpoenas touching more than 430 Republican individuals and groups; toll records for at least 11 senators and six House members, all shielded by court-approved gag orders; and internal emails showing prosecutors were warned that congressional subpoenas could violate the Constitution's Speech or Debate Clause.

In one email released this spring, a member of Smith's team wrote that the office was about to "fire off subpoenas for so many members tolls" that Smith himself should be looped in first.

Smith has insisted the phone-records furor is overblown. "Recent narratives about my team's work are false and misleading," he told the committee in his opening statement, stressing that toll records "do not include the content of calls." His attorneys have previously called the collection lawful - noting that special counsel Robert Hur obtained President Biden's toll records, and that the Justice Department under Trump's first term seized phone records of Democratic Reps. Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, along with those of dozens of congressional staffers.

"Jack Smith has answering to do," Grassley said, vowing to haul the former special counsel before the Senate Judiciary Committee "in the coming months."

December 2025: Jack Smith swore under oath that he didn't spy on text messages belonging to members of Congress.

Today: New evidence confirms he spied on dozens of members of Congress, myself included.

This is a blatant abuse of power, and exactly what our Founders warned… pic.twitter.com/3eqwiylLXI

— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 14, 2026 Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 18:50
Tyler Durden

Rubio Invites Countries To Summit Addressing "Underestimated Threat" From Far-Left Terrorism

Zero Rss
4 weeks 1 day ago
Rubio Invites Countries To Summit Addressing "Underestimated Threat" From Far-Left Terrorism

Authored by Bryan Hyde via American Greatness,

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is will meet with delegations from scores of countries this week for a summit focused on the neglected threat posed by “the resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism.”

ABC News reports that a note shared with foreign governments describes the concept of the meeting as addressing a threat that “has remained a blind spot in the international community’s counterterrorism focus, underestimated and under-resourced, despite the danger it poses.”

State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott told Newsmax that the Trump administration is taking seriously the gaps that have persisted for decades in counterterrorism strategy.

The United States is taking the resurgence of transnational far-left terrorism incredibly seriously. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are addressing gaps in our counterterrorism strategy that have been largely ignored by previous administrations. pic.twitter.com/fm0AXscLTT

— Tommy Pigott (@statedeptspox) July 13, 2026

The conference seeks to combat international organizations, specifically the decentralized antifa movement, which the administration has formally designated as a domestic terrorist organization.

Law enforcement and counterterrorism experts have exposed a “clear trend” of “globally networked, politically-motivated terrorists — particularly far-left terrorists” increasingly turning to “organized, deadly violence to advance their political objectives.”

The gathering will include senior ministers from over 60 countries — including nations across Europe, Latin America, Asia, as well as India and Israel—to discuss intelligence sharing and law enforcement cooperation.

The meeting, scheduled to take place in Washington on Thursday, will lay the foundation for “coordinated action” to counter international organizations that are “seeking to implement an extreme political vision through intimidation and coordinated campaigns of terror” according to ABC News.

The initiative aligns with a new U.S. counterterrorism strategy released in May 2026 that prioritizes “violent secular political groups” alongside traditional threats.

Some allies and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and other critics have accused the administration of utilizing counterterrorism authorities to target politically opposed but peaceful activists and donors, according to ABC News.

🚨 IT'S OFFICIAL: Sec. of State Marco Rubio in the coming days will converge a swath of allies to DECIMATE Antifa and communist-linked terrorists across the world

ANY rioter or agitator waving Antifa flags should be arrested on the spot, because they are supporting terrorists! pic.twitter.com/le736pigYJ

— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 12, 2026

The State Department has clarified that the terrorist designations are aimed at groups that are “engaged in violent terrorist activities such as kidnapping, targeting U.S. law enforcement, targeting the civilian population.”

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 18:25
Tyler Durden

New York's Millionaire Exodus Is Costing Billions In Lost Revenue

Zero Rss
4 weeks 1 day ago
New York's Millionaire Exodus Is Costing Billions In Lost Revenue

Mayor Zohran Mamdani stood outside Ken Griffin's $238 million Manhattan penthouse in April and declared victory. "When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today we're taxing the rich," he said in a social media video marking the debut of New York City's first pied-à-terre tax, an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live in the city full time. He promised the tax would raise "at least $500 million directly for the city," money he said would fund free child care, cleaner streets, and safer neighborhoods. "This is a fundamentally unfair system that hurts working New Yorkers," Mamdani said. "Now it's coming to an end."

BREAKING: Mamdani announces new tax on all property worth over $5 million if the owner doesn’t live in NYC full time pic.twitter.com/qN7pU3xEDg

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 15, 2026

Three months later, a new study suggests the mayor picked an odd moment to celebrate.

The Citizen Budget Commission published an analysis Monday, finding that New York's shrinking share of the nation's millionaires cost the state an estimated $10.7 billion in lost personal income tax revenue in 2022 alone. New York's share of the country's millionaires fell from 12.7 percent in 2010 to 8.7 percent in 2022, the steepest decline of any state over that period. Had New York simply held its 2010 share, the Commission concluded, the state would have collected roughly $10.7 billion more in personal income tax that year.

So Mamdani, who took office in January, had inherited a tax base already showing signs of flight. His pied-à-terre push targets exactly the kind of high earners the CBC says have been leaving in growing numbers, and critics view the timing as more provocation than plan. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who is running for reelection in November, has stopped short of backing an outright tax increase on wealthy New Yorkers this year, though she supports the pied-à-terre concept for luxury second homes in the city.

"In New York, the top 1% of earners pay about 45% of all state income taxes in any given year, so New York's revenue is very reliant on high earners to stay in New York, and that has been a challenge in recent years," said Jared Walczak, an economist and senior fellow at the Tax Foundation think tank, told the New York Post.

Walczak said city-level measures like Mamdani's cannot fix the underlying problem, since any meaningful tax change requires action in Albany. He also warned that continued hikes combined with more competitive alternatives elsewhere could accelerate departures.

Abir Mandel, senior state policy analyst at the Tax Foundation, said New York currently ranks last in the nation for tax competitiveness. She pointed to Elon Musk relocating his companies from California to Texas as the kind of decision New York risks inviting without reform, cautioning that the state will otherwise struggle to attract both population and business. Of Wall Street's outsized role in propping up state revenue, Mandel offered a blunt assessment. "Wall Street is the golden goose," she said. "But for how long?"

The CBC report traces the stagnation back well before Mamdani ever took office. Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo raised income taxes on high earners during the COVID pandemic, and Hochul now oversees Medicaid spending, which is on pace to reach $58 billion by the end of the decade. Ken Girardin, a research fellow at the Manhattan Institute, pointed to the state's 2019 rent-control overhaul and its green-energy mandate as a one-two punch that reduced housing supply and raised energy costs. "Albany is directly responsible for the stagnation," he said.

New York has lost more residents to every other state than it has gained from any of them, with Florida and Texas among the top destinations for departing New Yorkers, and that's a huge problem.

Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United, called the study's findings hard to ignore. "It's difficult to not be alarmed by this data," he said. "With this CBC tool, Upstate New Yorkers can see for themselves the devastating impacts of Albany's policies - businesses failing to grow, population decline, and the loss of revenue. NYS needs to course correct now before it's too late and we become permanently entrenched in a cycle of fewer people."

Asked about the study on Monday during an unrelated event, Mamdani dismissed concerns that higher earners will flee the city, arguing that New York gained millionaires after past tax increases by Albany. He defended his broader philosophy without addressing the CBC's specific findings. "I've been very clear about the fact that we live in the wealthiest city in the wealthiest country in the history of the world, and it's unacceptable that one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty, and I believe that the wealthiest can do a little bit more to ensure that everyone can afford to live here," he said.

Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 18:00
Tyler Durden

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